---
title: The greater part of them are always quarrelling and complaining of e… — The Violet Fairy Book · tree and pragmatics
description: The greater part of them are always quarrelling and complaining of each other’s faults, while nobody thinks of his own.’ Who acts: greater part, nobody. A sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/69/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Violet Fairy Book](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/) / [The Underground Workers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/) / 69

# The Violet Fairy Book, The Underground Workers, sentence 69

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
The greater part of them are always quarrelling and complaining of each other’s faults, while nobody thinks of his own.’

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** greater part, nobody · **What happens:** quarrell, complain, think · **To what, where:** faults

<!-- .vabout -->
This is a sentence of «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, The Underground Workers. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (greater part, nobody), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

<!-- .note-en -->
**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg641:25:69
# text = The greater part of them are always quarrelling and complaining of each other’s faults, while nobody thinks of his own.’
1	The	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	greater	great	ADJ	JJR	Degree=Cmp	3	amod	_	_
3	part	part	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	8	nsubj	_	_
4	of	of	ADP	IN	_	5	case	_	_
5	them	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	3	nmod	_	_
6	are	be	AUX	VBP	Mood=Ind|Number=Plur|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	aux	_	_
7	always	always	ADV	RB	PronType=Tot	8	advmod	_	_
8	quarrelling	quarrell	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	0	root	_	_
9	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	10	cc	_	_
10	complaining	complain	VERB	VBG	Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Part	8	conj	_	_
11	of	of	ADP	IN	_	12	case	_	_
12	each	each	DET	DT	PronType=Tot	13	det	_	_
13	other	other	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	15	nmod:poss	_	SpaceAfter=No
14	’s	's	PART	POS	_	13	case	_	_
15	faults	fault	NOUN	NNS	Number=Plur	10	obj	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	19	punct	_	_
17	while	while	SCONJ	IN	_	19	mark	_	_
18	nobody	nobody	PRON	NN	Number=Sing|PronType=Neg	19	nsubj	_	_
19	thinks	think	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	8	conj	_	_
20	of	of	ADP	IN	_	22	case	_	_
21	his	his	PRON	PRP$	Case=Gen|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|Poss=Yes|PronType=Prs	22	nmod:poss	_	_
22	own	own	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	19	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	8	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
24	’	'	PUNCT	''	_	8	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **quarrell** | present · progressive | the greater part of doings |  |  |  |  | always *property* | tree rules |
| 2 | **complain** *speech: other* | gerund | the greater part of doings *not said here* | each other's faults |  |  |  |  | tree rules |
| 3 | **think** *speech: other* | present | nobody |  |  |  |  | of part's own | vn focus-87.1-1 «NP V»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

<!-- div src -->

**Text:** «The Violet Fairy Book» by Andrew Lang, Project Gutenberg book 641 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [sentence 68](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/68/)
- next →: [sentence 70](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/70/)
- ↑ back to [The Underground Workers](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg641/25/)